TEHRAN, Iran – From nuclear negotiators to student dissidents, from bazaar merchants to turbaned mullahs, Iranians agree: The right to develop nuclear power is a point of national pride.

"For a country to have nuclear energy means that it has made progress in all other fields as well, so other countries have to respect its technology," says Nilufar, 29, a graduate student in energy management at the prestigious Sharif Industrial University.

Nilufar, covered in black so only her face was showing, agreed to be interviewed on such a sensitive topic only if her family name was not used.

Ehsan Motaghi, a 26-year-old seminary student in Isfahan, cited a parable from Imam Ali, the Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law and the inspiration for the Shiite branch of Islam, which most Iranians follow.

"They can offer me everything from the Earth and heaven, but in exchange if they want me to so much as take the food from an ant's mouth that is his right to eat, I won't do it," he said. "Achieving the peaceful use of technology is really a matter of pride, and we will not stop this for anything."

Such passions were echoed in two weeks of conversations with Iranians across all walks of life. Virtually all supported Iran's defying the West and moving ahead with its uranium enrichment program, which carries the threat of further U.N. sanctions.

A monthlong U.N. conference on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which Iran has signed, ended Friday, having failed to address the kinds of loopholes that the Americans and Europeans fear Iran is using to pursue nuclear weapons under cover of developing nuclear power.

"It is a symbolic thing for Iranians," says Mohammad Saeidi, the vice president for planning and international affairs at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. "Our people are very clever, very smart, and they want to use all the advanced technology in the world – nuclear technology, biotechnology, Internet technology."

But for all the passion in the air, there are many nuances in Iranian positions, according to Iranian officials, scholars and foreign diplomats. In fact, they say, Iranian backing for nuclear development indicates neither automatic support for the government nor hostility to the United States.

Only a small group, mostly die-hard revolutionaries, wants Iran to resign from the treaty and try to develop nuclear weapons, they say.

"It would be 100 percent better to have nuclear weapons, but only to use them against anyone who tried to attack us," said Reza Jaedi, a 24-year-old interviewed in Isfahan who has little sympathy for the government. "Iran should develop them as soon as possible."

It is rare to hear such views voiced in Iran, since they contradict the official line that Iran wants the technology only for peaceful means.

Another group opposes nuclear development as entirely too expensive, unnecessary given the nation's vast oil and gas reserves, and not worth the international political headache. In fact, say some scholars who have interviewed ordinary Iranians, some back off their support for nuclear development if they are told it might bring further economic hardship and international isolation to Iran.

But most Iranians, the experts say, fall into two other groups. One believes Iran should use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Another wants Iran to master the nuclear enrichment cycle both to avoid depending on foreign suppliers for nuclear fuel and to be able to move quickly to weapons development if Iran were threatened, either by Israel, the United States or a regional rival. That group sees nuclear power as an insurance policy against a forced change in the government.